Down the Rabbit Hole
by mindgames10
Summary: Set in Season 4 during The Hub: What if Kara took Laura to the Cylon basestar instead of Lt. Agathon & things didn't go quite the way they did during the episode?


Hi. This is my first try at fanfiction. I wrote this story a couple of years ago, but didn't decide to post it until a friend recently encouraged me to give it a try. Hope you'll give it a read and tell me what you think.

Obligatory Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Battlestar Galactica enterprise.

I always thought the relationship between Laura and Kara was sort of a tenuous mother-daughter-type connection (or at least had the potential to be, had the writers been able to explore it more). I thought of this as I wondered what would happen if Kara were put in the position of having to help Laura shortly after they'd had a falling out.

Setting the Scene: This takes place in Season 4 after Kara's return and her scene with Laura in Guess What's Coming to Dinner when she finds Laura in Life Station and Laura asks for her help in learning about her visions. It is a bit AU because, although it is set during the episode The Hub, in this brief piece Kara is the one who pilots Laura's shuttle over to the Cylon Basestar, rather than Lt. Agathon, and instead of Laura and Baltar being alone in the room with the hybrid, it is just Laura, with Kara hanging out in the background guarding her.

Laura looked down at the hybrid, trying to think of yet another way to ask it about the visions of the opera house. The hybrid was becoming more agitated, and just as Laura began to voice the next question, the hybrid tipped it's head back and shouted,

"JUUUUUUUMP!"

Alone but for Kara, now that the others had left the room, and still crouched next to the hybrid's tub, Laura froze at the sound, her mouth open in surprise as she felt the slightly uncomfortable slip and pull that meant the ship's FTL drive was executing another jump. Coming so soon after a Diloxin treatment, the sensation gave her vertigo and she felt herself falling toward the hybrid's tub.

One minute she was kneeling on cold metal, the next she was fully immersed in something slimy with no idea which way was up. She panicked. With eyes tight shut, she thrashed wildly until one arm became entangled in something that was in this goo with her. Laura's fingers came in contact with something solid yet soft, and she opened her eyes to see the hybrid's face inches from her own. The hybrid must have slipped below the surface at the same time that Laura fell in. Its hair had come loose; strands of it had become twisted around Laura's left wrist, and it was this hand that had just touched the hybrid's face. Laura opened her mouth to scream, but instead of sound coming out, thick fluid flowed inward and began filling her lungs. The edges of Laura's visual field greyed out and she lost consciousness just as someone grabbed the back of her suit jacket and energetically hauled her out so she was lying face down on the cold, hard metallic deck of the basestar.

Kara Thrace loosened her grip on the President's jacket, knelt down, and quickly flipped the woman over. Long strands of auburn hair, slick with goo from the tub, were plastered across Laura's face. Kara pushed them aside, wiping a layer of slime from Laura's face as she did so. Instinctively, her fingers searched for a pulse on the side of Laura's neck while at the same time Kara bent down, her cheek less than an inch from Laura's mouth as she waited to feel a tickle of breath as the President exhaled. Nothing.

"Frak me!" Kara howled. She tipped the President's head back, pinched her nose shut, and breathed forcefully into the President's mouth, then located the correct spot on the woman's sternum and began counting as she pressed sharply downward on Laura's chest. Another breath, more compressions…breath, compressions…breath, compressions.

Kara stopped briefly. _"Check pulse point, check breathing," _she thought to herself_. _Nothing.

"Breathe, damn you," Kara screamed, shaking the unconscious woman by the shoulders as a few tears began coursing their way down her cheeks.

Breath, compressions…breath, compressions…breath, compressions.

Kara bent forward once again, feeling for a pulse and waiting for a breath to come on its own. _Was that? No. Just my imagination. Or was it?_ Kara thought she felt a faint stir of air on her cheek as she bent over Laura to once again check for life signs.

"Come on, Madam President," she growled, "don't quit on me, now. What the hell am I going to tell the Old Man? Huh? Oh, sorry Sir. Offered to help the President clear up a few things about her dreams and there was a bit of a whoopsie-daisy along the way. Fell in a tub of slime & well, by the time I pulled her out…sorry to say we've one less prophet among us."

Breath, compressions… "Oh, yeah. That'll be rich."

Breath, compressions… "Spend the rest of my frakking life in the brig."

Breath, compressions…

Kara bent down closer, again feeling for that breath, hoping, and all the while continuing to mutter to herself and to Laura, "All because the President wanted some help interpreting her dreams. Right. I am just so fracked." "Come ON, Laura!" "Breathe!"

Her voice lowered as she whispered right into the President's ear, "We still need you. _I_ need you. Your job's not done yet, Ma'am, so get your ass in gear and…"

A hacking cough burst from the President's lungs (spraying slime onto Kara), and a shallow, whistling breath was sucked in. Kara jumped half a foot into the air, then with lightning speed turned Laura on her side as another deep-seated cough shook the woman's body and ended with Laura vomiting slime and what little was left of her breakfast onto the metal deck.

Convinced that Laura had expelled as much as she was going to, Kara eased the woman onto her back. Laura's mouth was open, gasping for air and her eyes darted all over in fear before coming to rest on Kara's face, which seemed to be floating above her and was expressing an even mixture of relief and something else Laura couldn't quite identify.

Laura raised shaking hands, reaching toward Kara, needing to be grounded to something or someone to ease her own terror.

"Kara," the President's voice came out in a hoarse whisper and the effort caused her to begin coughing again.

Kara reached down, gathered Laura in her arms and helped her sit up, positioning the woman so her upper body leaned partially against Kara and her chin rested on top Kara's left shoulder. She sharply swatted Laura's back between the shoulder blades, helping her to expel the last bits of slime from the tub. The aggravated coughing subsided, but Laura was still tensed and was having trouble drawing in even breaths. Kara continued to allow the exhausted woman to lean against her and awkwardly took to alternately patting and rubbing slow circles across Laura's back in an effort to relax her muscles so she could breathe properly while at the same time trying to provide some comfort to the frightened woman.

"It's OK," Kara whispered. "You're OK. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I've got you." Kara continued with her efforts to calm the President. It was working; she could hear Laura's breathing even out and could feel the woman's body becoming less rigid as Laura continued leaning into her. They sat that way for several minutes before Kara felt the woman in her arms stiffen and pull back slightly as she took in a fuller, but more ragged breath. Kara loosened her hold and pushed Laura away from her far enough that she could look at the woman's face while still helping steady her. Kara's hands firmly gripped the older woman's shoulders.

"Thank you," Laura ground out, sounding louder and steadier than before. "Help me up?" And Kara complied. Request, Presidential order, it didn't matter. Laura was going to be OK and she, Kara Thrace, was going to make sure Laura stayed that way.

Laura took a step back, trying her legs on her own, unsupported by Kara's strong grip. She faltered, then steadied herself and looked Kara in the eye. Kara was relieved to see a hint of playfulness creep into Laura's gaze. "So, Captain Thrace, shall we see about interpreting these dreams of mine? I'd hate to have the Admiral toss you in the brig for nothing."

Kara's jaw dropped just a bit before a sly smile took over her face, "You heard all that, Ma'am." It wasn't a question. Kara knew, and she had the good grace to color slightly as she said it. After all, she'd cursed her President and was getting away with it.

"Every word, Kara."

Kara's face shifted into one of her characteristic shit-eating grins and she lunged forward, pulling a surprised President of the Twelve Colonies into a crushing bear hug.

Sometimes, Kara hated this woman in her arms, but in moments such as these she loved her; loved her more than she'd ever been able to love her own mother.

Laura hugged back with equal fierceness.


End file.
